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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27307609">"THE PAINTING."  [ A JARED LETO HALLOWEEN STORY]</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Wolf/pseuds/A_Wolf'>A_Wolf</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>30STM, Halloween - Fandom, Horror - Fandom, jared leto - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A.Wölf, F/M, Halloween, Tumblr, theartofimagining13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:06:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,176</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27307609</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Wolf/pseuds/A_Wolf</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>While vacationing in Greece with his wife, Jared finds a strange old painting of a man with an uncanny resemblance to him. After he buys it and investigates its origins, unsettling things start taking place.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jared Leto/Original Female Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>"THE PAINTING."  [ A JARED LETO HALLOWEEN STORY]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a work of fiction and the actor mentioned here is just portraying this original character of mine.</p><p>HAPPY HALLOWEEN!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong>Originally posted at</strong>: <a href="http://theartofimagining13.tumblr.com/">The Art of Imagining</a>.</p><p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p><p> </p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <a href="https://youtu.be/Ck8MKw5Q-Yg">*AMBIENCE*</a>
</p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>"You’re really buying that?”</em>
</p><p>She asked with a quirked eyebrow while leaning against the checkout counter of the small antique shop. Her husband Jared kept his blue eyes glued to hers while he pulled out his credit card with an ironic smile and handed it to the old man behind the register. That had been his silent answer for her.</p><p>
  <em>“Jared, we’ll come back in two days.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Not a chance. This baby will sell in the blink of an eye.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“So, you’re just going to bring it with us?”</em>
</p><p>Jared nodded.</p><p><em>“In the yacht?”</em> She pushed.</p><p>
  <em>“Yep.”</em>
</p><p>She sighed and watched as the old man carefully wrapped the oil painting with brown paper.</p><p><em>“He really does look like you.”</em> She said in a certain tone.</p><p>
  <em>“In a good way or…?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“In a creepy way.”</em>
</p><p>Jared stared at it and let out a chuckle while she wandered off.</p><p><em>“My mom’s going to love it.”</em> He said before looking at the seller. <em>“How did this end up here?”</em></p><p>
  <em>“There was a devastating house fire not long ago. It’s the only thing that survived.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p><em>“A house fire?”</em> She inquired sarcastically. <em>“Sounds like bullshit to me. The painting’s in perfect condition. He just wanted you to buy it.”</em></p><p>
  <em>“It’s gotta have history, I mean, it looks pretty old.”</em>
</p><p>The two married tourists had arrived at the harbor and were ready to board the luxurious yacht her husband had rented for the two days they planned on spending at sea as part of their vacation schedule.</p><p><em>“I have a friend… she’s a museum curator.”</em> Jared added with a grunt as he placed their luggage in the yacht along with the painting. <em>“I’ll ask her.”</em></p><p>
  
</p><p>The Greek sun would be setting soon in the beautiful Mediterranean Sea.</p><p>She and Jared were comfortably lying there feeling the light breeze on their tanning skin until his phone rang with an awaited video-call.</p><p><em>“Hello, stranger.”</em> He greeted.</p><p>His wife shut her eyes again concentrating on her relaxation while she heard him in the background telling his friend about the painting he had just bought. The last thing she heard before she fell asleep was the sound of Jared getting up and walking away.</p><p>
  
</p><p><em>“This guy, he… he looks a lot like me so I thought it’d be fun to hang this in my house.”</em> Jared explained as he entered the master cabin to crouch in front of the painting. <em>“Give me a sec.”</em> He said before leaving the phone on the floor briefly and ripping the paper wrap. <em>“Voilà!”</em></p><p>He could see his friend squinting and getting closer to the camera to get a good look at the piece.</p><p><em>“It rings a bell…”</em> She muttered. <em>“Hold on.”</em></p><p>She took a screenshot on her phone and looked it up online.</p><p><em>“The strange man with the cane…”</em> She read out loud. <em>“I had heard about it but I had never actually seen it.”</em></p><p>
  <em>“I could totally tell people that he’s my evil great-grandfather, am I right?”</em>
</p><p>His friend’s face suddenly fell as she slowly sat back in her chair when it all dawned in on her.</p><p><em>“J?”</em> She caught Jared’s attention and sounded worried. <em>“J, you need to get rid of that.”</em></p><p>
  <em>“What?”</em>
</p><p><em>“That painting… is…”</em> She faltered and sighed. <em>“There’s something wrong with it.”</em></p><p>Jared, with a dumbfounded look on his face, waited for her to elaborate.</p><p>
  <em>“It’s… they say it’s cursed. It has brought misfortune to those who’ve owned it in the past.”</em>
</p><p><em>“Oh, you know what? I’m so sorry. I made a mistake.” </em>Jared said in a very serious tone.<em> “You see, ma’am, I thought I was calling my friend Ally who lives in New York City and has a master’s degree in Art history, but clearly I’ve phoned some other Ally that lives in a village with a pitchfork in her hand.”</em></p><p>
  <em>“I wish I was joking.”</em>
</p><p>Jared rolled his eyes and shook his head.</p><p>
  <em>“Listen. No one knows who painted it but we know that whoever did mixed their blood into the paint, and that’s all the information they could gather from DNA testings. It’s a very old piece and it’s been linked to wars, suicides, fires, and mysterious deaths. It’s been stolen and people have tried to destroy it a number of times but, somehow, it just keeps showing up in different places. Some people say it’s been looking for the right buyer all this time, whatever that means.”</em>
</p><p>Jared stared at Ally in silence for a complete minute.</p><p><em>“A haunted painting.”</em> He said with a condescending tone. <em>“Guess I’ve seen it all.”</em></p><p>The museum curator shook her head.</p><p>
  <em>“I know how it sounds but-”</em>
</p><p><em>“What about the resemblance between us though?” </em>He cut her off.</p><p><em>“I’m not going to deny it… it is very unsettling. More the reason to get-” </em>Her sentence was cut short when the image froze until sound followed and the signal was gone altogether.</p><p><em>“Ally?” </em>Jared tried calling her again in vain.</p><p>He stared at the half-unwrapped painting while replaying Ally’s words in his head.</p><p>
  
</p><p>Jared’s wife opened her eyes when a cold raindrop landed on her collar bone.</p><p>She frowned and propped herself up on her elbows to look at the horizon. How long was she asleep? The sun hadn’t set yet and the weather was warm, the complete opposite of the current situation; gray clouds had covered the sky and a cold wind gushed all around the yacht announcing a storm.</p><p>“<em>That’s not possible.” </em>She mumbled to herself as she grabbed her cell phone and looked at the time to realize she had been out for only 15 minutes. She proceeded to open the weather app to confirm nothing but sunny days forecasted during their trip. <em>“What the fuck?”</em></p><p>She crossed the yacht’s living room and walked into the kitchen to find Jared there fixing a couple sandwiches.</p><p><em>“It’s starting to rain.”</em> She complained.</p><p>Jared was about to open his mouth to speak but thunder resonated through the sky. He turned to face his wife.</p><p><em>“Do you want to head back?”</em> He asked.</p><p>
  <em>“Not really. Are we not safe here?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Well, if meteorologists couldn’t even see this storm coming, I think we don’t have to worry about it. I’m sure it’ll blow over quickly.”</em>
</p><p><em>“I’m getting a blanket. I’m freezing.”</em> She said before turning on her heel to leave.</p><p>She felt Jared’s arms wrapping themselves around her from behind. He delved into his swim trunks’ right pocket to pull something out and he held it up for her to see. Her lips parted with surprise as she gazed at the gold bracelet in his hand. It had an anchor charm dangling from it.</p><p><em>“Something to remember these last wonderful days.”</em> He murmured in her ear.</p><p>She turned around, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He helped her put it on as she swore to never take it off.</p><p>
  
</p><p>She walked into the master cabin followed by Jared and they stood in front of the bed. Ready to remove her bikini top, she pulled on the string and turned around only to gasp when her heartbeat faltered at the sight of the big painting neatly hung on the wall. She stared into his husband’s doppelganger’s eyes and instinctively kept her bathing suit top on out of inexplicable self-consciousness.</p><p>The art piece in all its glory and gold frame showed the man sitting with very straight posture but crossed legs in a red velvet tufted chair with carved mahogany. He wore an elegant black damask suit and held a cane in his right hand, staring directly into the eyes of all those who gazed at him first. The blue shade in them made them so realistic they seemed to follow wherever you moved. He possessed a hint of a smile on his face far from amicable. He wore diverse rings on his right hand with big stones in them, and the background was only a diffused dark red as if he had appeared out of thin air in a crimson fog.</p><p><em>“I am not sleeping in here with that thing watching us.”</em> She warned Jared.</p><p>He followed her line of sight and frowned at the painting and then at his wife. He was suddenly suspicious. Maybe she had heard him on the phone and was playing a prank.</p><p><em>“Take it down.”</em> She said annoyed while on her way to the bathroom.</p><p>A little uncertainty was slowly creeping its way into him. Could Ally have been telling the truth then? Had she any reasons to lie? A bolt of lightning lit up the cabin and the painting, and Jared could swear that the man had deviously grinned at him. He took a step back. He had to be seeing things after the museum curator planted a seed in his brain. He got closer to the piece and was about to take it down but gasped in pain when something sharp cut his thumb. A drop of his blood ran down the canvas and Jared thought that it would ruin it but it was completely absorbed by the painting.</p><p>He took it down and hid it in the closet.</p><p>
  
</p><p>A noise… a weird and constant noise woke her up but she kept her eyes closed, even shut them tighter with irritation and as if that would put her back to sleep. She turned on the bed with her back to Jared but the noise wouldn’t stop so she gave up and opened her eyes. The room was completely dark but the sound seemed to be coming from the corner. Four quick and overlapping taps on the coffee table, over and over again. There was something… someone… sitting in the chair watching her and drumming their fingers on the table. From pinky to index, one impatient tap for each finger.</p><p>It abruptly came to a stop, submerging the room in a deafening silence where not even the sea or the storm outside could be heard anymore; utter and complete silence. She felt her heart in her throat and the hairs on the back of her neck standing up as she sensed its presence still watching her. With a trembling hand, she slowly reached out to switch on the bedside lamp but there was nothing there.</p><p>The storm had intensified throughout the night causing the yacht’s motion to turn violent. She took a deep breath, thinking that perhaps she had been half asleep and stuck in a nightmare. She snuggled up to Jared, leaving the light on, and he was fast asleep until the sound of the closet door creaking open followed by a loud noise startled him awake. She let out a muffled scream and held onto him as he sat up.</p><p>A cane had fallen out. The same one from the painting. Jared glanced at his wife with terror in his eyes and knowing that there were a few things he had to confess.</p><p>
  
</p><p><em>“Throw it overboard. Let it sink to the bottom of the ocean. I don’t care!”</em> She screamed in the kitchen.</p><p>Jared’s wife was livid after hearing what Ally had told him, so the couple was fighting in the middle of the kitchen with all the lights on and the chaotic rocking of the yacht causing them to flicker from time to time. The argument ceased when they heard something coming from above, in their bedroom; Loud steps and the cane hitting the ground. Jared grabbed the kitchen knife and went to the master cabin with his wife following closely, but again, there was nothing there.</p><p><em>“That’s it. I’m getting rid of it.”</em> She announced with a tone of determination.</p><p>
  
</p><p>They were drenched by the rain the second they stepped onto the deck, and it was hard to stay up on their feet with their newfound sea legs but nothing would stop her from disposing of the cursed art piece, so she hurled it overboard and watched as it tumbled in the wild waves.</p><p><em>“Do you think the frame’s heavy enough to sink?”</em> She asked.</p><p>But when she heard no answer, she turned around. Jared was nowhere to be seen.</p><p><em>“Jared?”</em> She yelled once and then a second time as an unfathomable fear invaded her.</p><p>She was alone in a yacht in the middle of the night surrounded by nothing but the infinity of the sea.</p><p>She perceived something, a cry for help muffled by the crashing waves and the rain. She ran towards the railing trying to find her husband in the dark water. He suddenly appeared on the surface, calling her, only to be pulled back under by the current. She sprinted towards the opposite railing where the mooring line was wound, slipping and stumbling on the wet floor multiple times. She grabbed it and successfully attempted to locate her husband again to throw it at him. He understood her plan when the rope landed a few feet away from him.  </p><p>All he needed to do was swim towards it.</p><p>He grabbed the end of the rope but was brusquely pulled away with an ungodly strength as if he and his lifeline were magnets of the same pole face, repelling each other. She watched horrified and her husband knew that if he tried again he probably wouldn’t be able to swim back to the yacht.</p><p>It dawned in on him.</p><p><em>“The painting!”</em> He shouted at the top of his lungs.</p><p>His wife understood everything when he swam towards it and was finally able to touch the rope and wrap it around the piece and himself. There was a sinister link between Jared and the painting, much deeper than the physical similarities between him and the man in it; in order for her husband to survive, they would have to protect the painting at all costs.</p><p>She pulled the rope until Jared was able to reach the boarding ladder and grabbed the painting to toss it on the deck where it landed face down while she helped him back into the yacht. She held onto him tightly and a scared yet relieved sob escaped her. </p><p>
  
</p><p>She woke up to the warm sunny day she had longed for.</p><p>Had it all been a nightmare? For a moment it seemed that way. Perhaps she hadn’t really woken because she was all alone on the bed. She felt a knot in the pit of her stomach but got up and walked into the living room to find her husband standing there in front of the coffee table. She took a deep breath as relief relaxed her every muscle.</p><p><em>“You scared me…”</em> she exhaled.</p><p>Jared froze in place and didn’t turn around. He stiffened when he felt her arms wrapping themselves around his waist, and she felt it but blamed it on the previous night’s events that would have them both on edge for indefinite time. He awkwardly removed her hands and finally faced her with an expression she couldn’t read, but then she peeked at the coffee table to see the painting all wrapped up in brown paper again.</p><p><em>“At least we won’t have to look at it.” </em>Jared uttered.</p><p>Her heart broke a little. He had gotten up early and forced himself to share the same space with that ominous painting all by himself just to cover it up for his and his wife’s mental health’s sake, and she definitely never wanted to look into the strange man’s eyes ever again. She showed him a reassuring smile before speaking.</p><p>
  <em>“I’ll make breakfast, okay?”</em>
</p><p>Jared’s blue eyes never left her as she moved towards the kitchen.</p><p>
  
</p><p>Holding a warm plate in each hand, she walked out into the deck and in Jared’s direction, who was already waiting while gazing straight ahead at the ocean. She became paralyzed and her smile faded when she noticed his right hand on top of the table with his fingers drumming on it, one by one, over and over again, reminding her of the dreadful dream she had had. And just like in the nightmare, he stopped. He had sensed her. He slowly began to turn his head, and a chill ran down her spine for she expected to see something other than her husband, something horrible.</p><p><em>“Do you need help?”</em> Jared inquired with a genuine smile.</p><p>Her heartbeat faltered and finally settled down.</p><p>She was definitely suffering from PTSD.</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“Yeah, no. It was an accident but he’s fine. He’s just been quieter than usual but then again, I had never seen him that scared.”</em>
</p><p>She was speaking to Jared’s brother on the phone. The married couple had gotten on a plane and arrived home a few days prior and they were trying their best to carry on with their lives after the paranormal event. Being in the safety and cozy environment of their home was helping without a doubt for it gave them a deep sense of protection.</p><p><em>“You should come over for dinner soon.” </em>She said as she stopped at the entrance of hers and Jared’s bedroom.</p><p>She leaned against the doorway and watched her husband taking a much needed nap on the bed.</p><p><em>“It’ll do him good.”</em> She added.</p><p>With farewells whispered to not wake Jared up, she ended the conversation and hung up the phone. She glanced at her empty suitcase resting on the bed bench and decided to stash it under the bed to perhaps join her husband afterwards. She knelt down and pushed the suitcase underneath but it hit something else that slid out on the opposite side of the bed. She frowned and pulled the suitcase back out before looking under. Jared had stored the painting under the bed and even though she was well aware of the safekeeping it needed, she mentally cursed him for not choosing the attic instead.</p><p>Still kneeling down, her upper body rose to make sure that he was still fast asleep. She was determined to get the painting out of their bedroom. Almost half her body was under the bed now as she reached for it but the dangling anchor on her bracelet got caught on a small hole in the paper, most likely created during shipping, and as she tugged, the wrap was torn across the painting. There, in the darkness underneath the bed, she could see there was something disturbingly different about it.</p><p>She was about to break out in a cold sweat and felt lightheaded when she realized that the chair in the painting was now empty. Her whole body trembled as she army crawled backwards from under the bed. But she froze when she was able to see a pair of feet on the ground out of the corner of her right eye. And although they resembled Jared’s, she knew perfectly well that they weren’t his feet. <em>He</em> was there, just sitting on the bed. Waiting for her. The indescribable panic made her move swiftly and she was finally out. She crawled backwards until her back hit the wall and she looked into his unblinking dead eyes.</p><p>He slowly showed her a crooked smile.</p>
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